1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a stencil material roll and more particularly to a stencil material roll which comprises stencil material in a continuous length rolled around a core tube and is provided with a storage means storing predetermined information.
2. Description of the Related Art
There have been known various stencil printers in which a part of stencil material in a continuous length is imagewise perforated by driving a thermal head or the like on the basis of image data obtained by reading an original by, for instance, an image scanner, the imagewise perforated part of the stencil material is subsequently severed from the stencil material to form a stencil, the stencil is wound around a printing drum and printing is made by supplying ink inside the printing drum and transferring ink to printing papers by a roller and the like through the stencil.
In the stencil printer, stencil material rolls are used for the reason of improvement in the workability and easiness of handling. In U.S. Pat. No. 6,530,519, there has been proposed a stencil material roll in which a storage means such as a memory IC is provided and parameters such as data on the remainder of the stencil material roll, data on the kind of the stencil material roll and the like are stored in the storage means. The parameters such as remainder data (data on the remainder of the stencil material roll), kind data (data on the kind of the stencil material roll) and the like stored in the storage means are read out by a stencil printer and used for controlling various actions in the stencil printer.
As a method of reading various kinds of information from the memory IC (storage means) of the stencil material roll, there has been proposed a method in which a memory IC with an antenna is provided on a stencil material roll and the information stored in the memory IC is read through the antenna in a non-contact system. Further, there has been proposed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2000-281268 a method of installing a memory IC with an antenna in which the memory IC is disposed in the core tube around which the stencil material is wound. Further, in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 7(1995)-2525, there has been proposed a method of installing a memory IC with an antenna in which the memory IC is disposed inside the core tube to be substantially in perpendicular to the direction of the longitudinal axis of the core tube so that the information can be stably read even if the stencil material roll is revolved. By reading out the information stored in the memory IC by providing a readout antenna to be opposed to the memory IC disposed in the manner described above, the information can be read out at a higher sensitivity.
It is necessary to separate the core tube and the memory IC from each other to discard them or to recycle them after use of the stencil material roll. However, when the memory IC is disposed in the core tube as disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No.2000-281268, it is difficult to separate the core tube and the memory IC from each other. It is also difficult to separate the core tube and the memory IC from each other depending on the position of the memory IC when the memory IC is disposed inside the core tube as disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 7(1995)-2525.
Further, though, in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 7(1995)-2525, there is proposed a method in which the memory IC is disposed inside the core tube to be substantially in perpendicular to the direction of the longitudinal axis of the core tube so that the antenna sensitivity is improved and the information can be stably read even if the stencil material roll is revolved, it is not easy to dispose the memory IC inside the core tube to be substantially in perpendicular to the direction of the longitudinal axis of the core tube and at the same time, the direction of the memory IC can be changed during use of the stencil material roll. Further, it is preferred that the reader means for reading out the information from the memory IC be disposed at a distance as small as possible from the memory IC and at the same time can read out the information constantly at the same distance. For this purpose, it is necessary for the readout antenna to be in a parallel position relatively to the memory IC.
Since the memory IC is an electronic component and is apt to be broken on impact, it is preferred that the memory IC be not exposed to impact.